Rainbow Investigations has been Canada's top self-appointed weight loss scam "policeman". We have consistently exposed all the weight loss scams in Canada since 2001.

There is a clear cut pattern to these scams - once you see the pattern, you can ususally recognize a scam versus a legitimate promotion.

How To Spot A Diet Fraud Scam

Some Tip-Off's to Weight Loss Rip-Offs

Full page ads that the person lost more than 40 lbs in a short period of time without dieting - sounds too good to be true, and it is!

Weight loss that is effective, and permanent must be multi-faceted, and gradual loss over a period of time is the best. All responsible weight loss programs must burn off more than one takes in so there must be a diet modification aspect.

Claims that the product works by a secret formula, or the ad does not describe the ingredients are usually fraudulent- legitimate scientists share their knowledge for peer review.

The promotion operates by mail order, and the address is a mailbox location - legitimate products have a manufacturing plant, or an importing legal agent, which is inspected by regulators, and is not a secret.

How do you tell if the address is a mailbox place? Type in the address into the “Google” search engine. If several addresses come up at the same address, we are probably dealing with a mailbox. Call one of the businesses to confirm the address is a mailbox. Note - there never has been a legitimate weight loss product marketed by mail order in Canada or the U.S.

Questionable testimonials by people who have never been obese, or may be paid models, simply do not exist - Ordinary people who have lost weight can not look as good as some of these models.

The phone number is an 800 number, which goes to a call centre to simply “take orders”. If you can’t directly talk to the company people in charge of the product, we are dealing with a scam.

The program is not an on-going treatment program, but rather a one - shot treatment (i.e. some hypnosis programs) - All the evidence indicates that effective weight loss programs are multi-faceted, and on-going.

The company continues to advertise heavily - most reports now are coming from the eastern U.S., and includes airline in-flight publications, hair styling magazines, and smaller community newspapers…July 20, 2001

The PhytoPharma weight loss fraud, operating covertly out of the Toronto area, continues on. This fraud, where full page ads are appearing under the names Plant Macaret with Chantel Legrand…March 12, 2001